Scott's Sports Spot

The golf season ended with a successful individual Class C State title for Sam Grindle with some outstanding play. See the related article concerning his success. Connor Morey also played and had a respectable 85. After he got started, Connor realized that the head on his putter was loose. Because he wasn’t sure of the ruling and not wanting to be disqualified, he didn’t dare to switch it with another one and his game on the greens suffered. He finished 13th but only the top 10 go to the New England tournament. The 79 he shot the week before would have easily gotten him into the top 10.

The girls’ soccer team made a great run to end the season and give themselves a good playoff position. We started by beating Bangor Christian 5-3. Bangor Christian scored first, but we answered with a goal by Paige Rollins assisted by Julie Hutchins halfway through the first half. With seven minutes left, Paige Rollins scored again assisted by Chelsea Brown and less than a minute later, Chelsea Brown scored on a perfectly struck direct kick.

Early in the second half, Paige Rollins scored again, assisted by Holli Boyce, to give us a commanding 4-1 lead. Though we controlled the ball very well, BC scored with seven minutes left. With a couple minutes left, they were awarded a penalty kick, which they did get. So we were only up by a goal, but in the last minute, Paige Rollins scored again to put it out of reach. We made 13 shots and BC managed eight.

The girls then beat Narraguagus 2-0. We chose the field position of having the wind in our face for the first half and we didn’t score, but we kept Narraguagus off the board as well, so it was 0-0 at the half. We came out strong in the second half with the wind at our back and Paige Rollins scored about 10 minutes into the half assisted by Julie Hutchins.

With seven minutes left, Morgan Shepard scored assisted by Chelsea Brown to give us some breathing room. We played very well in this match and controlled the ball with good passing. We took many good shots and out shot Narraguagis 22-7.

The girls played well to come back and earn a 3-3 tie with George Stevens the next day. Again we played the first half with the wind in our face. GSA scored first, but Paige Rollins came back to tie it up assisted by Svenja Griesbach. GSA scored a few minutes later, but what really hurt was GSA’s score on a direct kick with 28 seconds left in the half.

Trailing 3-1, we pushed hard in the second half. It paid off with Allyson Eaton scoring with 15 minutes left assisted by Kristyn Davis and then Natalie Knowlton scored about a minute later to tie it up. Each team battled with several good chances into the two overtimes, but both goalies came up with quality saves to maintain the tie. We took 20 shots and GSA took 13.

The magic ended as Penobscot Valley beat us 5-1 in our fifth game in 7 days and third game in a row. PVHS scored quickly in the first half but we answered with 10 minutes gone when Paige Rollins scored assisted by Natalie Knowlton. PVHS scored two more goals before the half, and we lost our momentum, both physically and mentally.

It all caught up to us and we couldn’t match Penobscot Valley’s speed. PVHS scored two more in the second half to seal their win. We did have some chances and bounced one off the crossbar, but it just wasn’t there. We took six shots and PVHS took 14.

The boys’ soccer team was under manned again, losing to George Stevens 11-3. After GSA scored five goals fairly easily against our nine players, in a gesture of good sportsmanship, their coach put only nine players on the field to match our nine. Reid Bartlett scored his first career goal assisted by Krisford Melanio.

When an injury limited us to eight players, GSA also went to eight players. It ended up more like a scrimmage or practice, rather than the rout it could have been, and it benefited both teams. Pat Duddy scored a couple goals on breakaways and everyone saw a lot of time in positions they don’t normally play. Kudos to GSA for their compassion and sportsmanship.

All this led up to the game the boys played at home in a drama filled thriller that we won against Penobscot Valley 4-3 in overtime. As Jackie Gleason would say, “How sweet it is!” We got back three of the players from ineligibility, so we had a bench of one for this game.

If you saw the reaction from our team to Pat Duddy’s overtime winning goal, you’d have thought that we won the Eastern Maine finals. But rightly so, these kids have worked hard all season against adversity to get this first win.

Pat Duddy scored an unassisted goal to give us the lead until late in the first half when PVHS scored to tie it up. Midway through the second half, we took back the lead as Bradin Cote scored on an assist from Pat Duddy. Things looked pretty good until PVHS scored two breakaway goals within a minute of each other with nine minutes left. Before we could get too down on ourselves, Krisford Melanio headed in a perfect corner kick from Noah Davis to tie it up. We were pumped and Krisford almost got the winner on a run down the sidelines a couple minutes later.

Just over two minutes into the overtime, Pat Duddy put home a shot from an assist from Krisford Melanio and the field went wild! The PVHS coach summed it up when he told Coach Bennett Morey he felt we wanted it more. I have to mention that goalie Tyler Robbins also preserved the win with several point blank saves in the second half. This was truly a team win, with every player giving it all they had.

The girls at 5-7-2 are in eighth place at the moment and would play East Grand this Friday here if things stay as they are with one day to play. We pulled it together for the last five games going 3-1-1 with the five games played in seven days. With almost a week to rest and get healthy, we just need to play our game and keep passing and controlling the ball the way we did at the end of the season. Who knows, anything can happen.

The boys finally did get the win they needed to boost their confidence. If this win had come midway through the season, we could easily be looking at a playoff berth. However it is great that this team was able to validate all the hard work and adversity they faced this season with a hard fought win. Playing hard all through a match was a characteristic of this team during this season.